wheter or not to ditch the crate? your views please...

[WTFwasthat]

pup has never been a massive fan of the crate. He sleeps overnight in the kitchen under the worktop in his dogbed. No puddles or poos in morning. He will pop himself in his bed if he wants a snooze in the day. He never voluntarily goes in his crate even when his dog bed was in there. I have popped out twice in last two days. for 30 mins max to collect dd and left him in kitchen but not in crate ( which is in living room), with no problem. Is it worth persevering with crate? I have been putting him inthere when I go out for longer, shopping etc. and he doesn't fuss but is there any point?

[SpicyPear]

My concern would be when he gets a bit older and possibly has an adolescent chewing phase. Could spell disaster for your kitchen if he can't be crated!

[WTFwasthat]

what is the age at which chewing peaks?

[SpicyPear]

7 to 12 months apparently but will depend on the dog. When they lose the puppy teeth and the adult ones are erupting.

[digerd]

By 6 months dogs usually have their adult teeth - start teething at 3 months. Crating while alone keeps them safe and secure.
How old is your pup?

[SpicyPear]

Yes of course I'm getting my phases muddled. 3-7 months puppy teething and 7-12 months adolescent phase when adult teeth are settling.

[Jux]

I don't really understand why anyone would think that a dog - which is a family pet - would want to go in a cage. Ddn't people used to just teach their puppies not to chew?

[doggydaze]

Caveat - I am not a dog owner yet! Hopefully soon.

We are surrounded by friends who are though. In fairness, most have used crates and would recommend them.

We do have one friend with a Lab who gave up after 2 nights of him howling. He's 3 now, sleeps at the bottom of the stairs (with all four legs in the air, friends say it's a bloomin pain in the arse if they go for a drink in the middle of the night as he never wakes up and they have to do a giant stride over him in the dark) and they leave him the hall if they go out. He has never chewed a thing.

I just wonder if it depends on the individual dog? Tis hard!

[D0oinMeCleanin]

Jux my parents are having this issue with me. They are minding Whippy while I go away. She is taking her crate. They are going to teach her that she doesn't have to be "cruelly locked in a cage" every night. I see sleepless nights ahead for them. She adores her crate. If you forget to lock the door she wanders aimlessly around the house whining pathetically until someone takes pity on her and gets up to shut the crate door for her. She feels safe in her crate. It's her own little den.

[digerd]

We gave our pups chewy toys, and as adults chew bones, pigs ears - latter stink though. We were lucky to have a very large wire fenced in garden, and they were let out several times a day as I was at home all day, which I loved.

OPs pup sounds very settled and happy.

[WTFwasthat]

digerd, am getting confused i guess. Pup never wanders into his crate even though it is in the family room, he would rather sleep under the worktop in the kitchen (there's a rad on low there too ). I am worried about leaving him alone uncrated but he seems very happ there and have had no issue firvpast few days when i have had to go out. Do you think he may begin chewing more and destroy my hall/ kitchen if not crated? He has been left for 70 mins today while I went food shopping with no damage done

[WTFwasthat]

oh and his crate was in the kitchen under the top at one point but he still never went in it!

[tabulahrasa]

Jux - I'm doing my best to teach my puppy not to chew, but he literally wanders round the room looking for things to chew on and that's with every chew and toy money can buy available and me there willing to entertain him...

He's tried chewing everything, doors, shelves, the wall, cables, the floor, the cat I've had to fish screws, scissors and staples out of his mouth nevermind the sort of things I'd expect him to want to get, and these aren't things just lying about at puppy height, so he's safer in his crate if there's no-one watching him.

The plan was that it'd go when he'd learnt not to chew, but now he's here I have no idea when that will be, lol.

[Floralnomad]

My dog never voluntarily went in his crate either and TBH it was so big we ditched it , he has also never chewed any fixtures just clothing ,slippers,soft toys etc, we leave him in the hall when we go out as that's where he sleeps at night . It is quite large . My mother had a dog that chewed through oven housings ( several) but it was very apparent from about 12 weeks ,he never grew out of it so it had nothing to do with teeth! IMO I'd risk it in the kitchen cos if he's going to chew during the day he will also do it overnight.

[WTFwasthat]

floralnomad. i am tempted to ditch it. when i go out he has usually dragged a shoe or slipper in his bed but he doesn't chew it, he snuggles on it . he does chew stuff but he seems to favour cardboard and newspapers! My recycling is now out of reach!

[WTFwasthat]

he is 16 and half weeks.

[OneMoreChap]

Never crated any of the multiple canines; couple of them chewed, most didn't.
Trained on paper/pads in kitchen; when clean, given access to rest of house and dogflap.

House is always full of dog hair and mud, despite best efforts. Tiled floors for the win.

[Floralnomad]

Mine rips up newspapers, still does at 2.5 , he even tries to drag it out of the rabbits cage! The worst he's ever done was when he chewed through a pair of very expensive Egyptian cotton sheets ,but it was my own fault because I'd left them on the floor in front of the machine and he sat down on them and ate them! All his blankets have holes in them ! I would think your puppy is just as likely to destroy your kitchen overnight as during the day, that's when my mums dog did all his best work.

[tabulahrasa]

It was pretty obvious that mine was a walking shredder from day one btw, he likes to have a good gnaw on things since he started teething, but he didn't suddenly start chewing, he's always done it.

My last dog I got as an older puppy, just at the end of teething and he wasn't really a chewer, he always chewed his beds and occasionally he'd steal a shoe - but he didn't chew randomly like this one.

[Jux]

Sorry. Hope I didn't offend anyone. Now I know! I really didn't understand, and am massively curious about this sort of thing, even though we'll never have a dog as dh hates them (and we have 3 cats and a bearded dragon - and that's all quite expensive enough).

Thanks for telling me.

[GoldenOrangeWhippoorwhill]

I'd be tempted to ditch the cage. I've never actually used one. I don't have a problem with them, just never thought about it but the dogs we've had showed their chewing tendencies early on.

I had one who was a chewer right from the start. She ripped beds to pieces, destroyed shoes and handbags, chewed chunks out of walls etc. despite having many, many toys and bones to entertain her. Even now, at the age of 12, she chewed open one of the puppy's toys and pulled all the stuffing out.

The second dog never chewed anything she wasn't supposed to, except one night I forgot I'd left some treats in a coat pocket and she nibbled a tiny hole and ate the treats.

The third dog was a rescue Golden Retriever who, amongst the many problems that led to his needing a new home, had eaten their kitchen!!! He was 6 months old when we got him and had been locked in a garden shed every day because he was such a dreadful chewer that they wouldn't have him in the house. I didn't leave him alone, unsupervised, at any point and he never chewed anything bad. He did love bones and toys and would steal things to bring to you when he was excited but handed them over unchewed so I suspect that a lot of his problem was boredom and separation anxiety.

Pupiranha is very much a chewer so she gets confined to the Utility Room over night and when we have to go out. She gets a stuffed Kong and amuses herself shredding the puppy pads. No doubt she will discover that beds and duvets have fluff inside them before long!!!

[tabulahrasa]

To be fair, I was fairly against crates until I researched them, my puppy came used to one, so I've not had to train him to go into it at all he happily goes in there when the door's open to sleep about half the time during the day and he's shut in at night and most days because I'm in he's shut in it much less than an hour split through the day, ten minutes here and there while I go for a shower or the toilet...but obviously he can't come to the supermarket or to parent's evening so he gets left after a walk with toys and a kong stuffed with food if I have to do something like that, but he mostly sleeps.

Anything longer than a couple of hours I get a puppy sitter for.

[Floralnomad]

I'm not against crates when used correctly but ours just never saw it as his bed which may be because it was too large or because it reminded him of being at Battersea . I do agree though that by 16 weeks it would be apparent that you'd got a chewer!

[WTFwasthat]

well taking thiese posts into account I think I will ditch the crate.m If i need to go out longer i leave him at my Mums ( like tonight I had parent's evening) Maybe I have got lucky with puppy. Fingers crossed

[PortBlacksandCheeseBoard]

We never bothered. didn't really like the idea if i'm honest. Ddog1 was a pup before they became popular (he's 14 now) and Dpups2&3 slept on a beanbag by the side of our bed at night...

....a few wooden knobs got chewed but we replaced them with metal ones.

[WTFwasthat]

well the crate is history! He has been in the house (confined to kitchen/diner and hallway) with no access to lounge or dining room and it has been fine!